In naming the 50-year-old executive yesterday to oversee
all of Sony’s consumer electronics -- from PlayStation game
consoles to Bravia televisions and Cyber-shot cameras --Stringer
picked the only one of the “Four Musketeers” he’s been
grooming who isn’t an engineer by trade. Hirai, who’s fluent in
Japanese and English, was also the youngest musketeer.

The promotion will test the games chief’s ability to carry
out Stringer’s vision to integrate Sony’s TVs and computers with
content from the entertainment businesses. After the Walkman’s
domination of portable players in the 1980s, Tokyo-based Sony
lost against Apple with the iPod, failed to fend off Samsung in
TVs, while Nintendo Co. (7974) took the lead in video-game consoles.

“Sony needs to reform itself from its engineering-oriented
past so it’s significant that a generalist take the helm,” said
Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about $450 million in Tokyo at
Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “If you look at Apple, it’s
not about their technology any more. It’s how they attract
consumers with marketing strategy.”

Born in Tokyo Dec. 22, 1960, Hirai grew up moving back and
forth between Japan and the U.S., graduating from the
International Christian University in Tokyo in 1984 with a
bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.

‘Loyal, Charming’

After graduation, he joined a joint venture set up in Tokyo
between Sony and CBS Inc. The business later became Sony Music
Entertainment Inc., Sony’s main music unit.

Hirai is “loyal on one hand and well educated in the
convergence products, and I think he has a charming
personality,” Stringer told reporters in Tokyo.

Hirai, whose hobbies include cycling, driving, as well as
collecting cameras, watches, model railroads and telescopes,
moved to Sony Computer Entertainment America in 1995 and became
president of the U.S. unit in 1999. He was promoted to President
of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in 2006, replacing Ken Kutaragi, developer of the PlayStation.

Hirai will head a newly created group that combines all of
Sony’s consumer electronics and network services from April 1.
He will also be responsible for sales and marketing, common
software platforms and design operations, according to Sony.

The company cited Hirai’s ability to turn around the
PlayStation games division for promoting him to the expanded
role. Hirai wasn’t immediately available for an interview,
according to Mami Imada at Sony.

PlayStation Profits

The company last month reported third-quarter earnings that
exceeded analysts’ estimates after the PlayStation games
division’s profit more than doubled. That cushioned a slump in
TV prices, which had also eroded earnings at Samsung and
Panasonic Corp. (6752)

Sony fell 0.9 percent to close at 2,870 yen in Tokyo
yesterday. Since Stringer took over in June 2005, Sony’s stock
has fallen 26 percent, almost triple the drop by Japan’s
benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

The promotion vaults Hirai past Hiroshi Yoshioka as the
highest-ranking executive among Stringer’s “musketeers.” The
move allows Stringer, who turns 70 next year, to lighten his
work and travel load as Sony prepares for an eventual leadership
change at Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics.

“Sony’s attempt to boost synergies between its hardware
products and software services hasn’t gone well. If anyone can
accomplish this, it’s probably Hirai,” said Jay Defibaugh, an
analyst at MF Global FXA Securities in Tokyo. “Hirai isn’t an
engineer but he has an international background and good
understanding of the overall entertainment industry.”

‘Complicated Company’

The board of the Tokyo-based company talked a lot about
looking at talents outside Sony, Stringer said. A final decision
on his succession hasn’t been made, he said.

“Since we promoted many young executives, I think it will
be destructive to bring an outside player,” he said. “It’s a
very big, complicated company. Coming in from outside isn’t
easy.”

As part of the overhaul, Sony will combine all consumer
electronics and networked-service functions under the umbrella
of Hirai’s Consumer Products & Services Group, it said.
Broadcast and professional products, as well as components such
as batteries and chips, will be part of the Professional &
Device Solutions Group under Yoshioka, it said.

Yoshioka, the oldest of the “musketeers” at 58, will
retain his title of executive deputy president, Sony said.

3-D TVs

According to people familiar with the matter in November,
Sony planned to search for a new president who could eventually
succeed Stringer. Hirai and Yoshioka were the leading internal
contenders, the people said at the time.

Since 2009, Stringer has been grooming Hirai, Yoshioka,
Yoshihisa Ishida and Kunimasa Suzuki as the company’s next
generation of leaders.

Stringer replaced division leaders to spur cooperation and
cut 30,000 jobs to revive earnings. Sony has been trying to
boost sales by promoting 3-D products and being first in
offering Internet-oriented TVs that run on Google Inc. (GOOG) software
and Intel Corp. (INTC) chips.

Stringer travels frequently between his main office in New
York, Sony’s Tokyo headquarters, the movie division in Los
Angeles and London where his family lives. He said in 2009 he
wanted to remain on the job until Sony completes its business
plan ending in March 2013.

Stringer, who holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in
history from Oxford University, joined Sony in 1997 after a
career spanning two decades at CBS. The Welsh-born U.S. citizen
became chairman and CEO in 2005 after winning the endorsement of
his predecessor, Nobuyuki Idei, who oversaw the loss of more
than 60 percent of Sony’s market value over five years as Apple
and Samsung gained market share.

Stringer scored a victory over Toshiba Corp., which
abandoned its HD DVD technology in 2008, handing the high-definition video market to Sony’s Blu-ray. It was the
entertainment industry’s largest format tussle since VHS beat
Betamax in the 1980s.

Stringer also oversaw the biggest recall in the consumer-electronics industry in 2006 when some of the company’s
batteries overheated. He led Sony during the company’s first
back-to-back annual losses since its listing. Under Stringer,
the company’s flagship PlayStation 3 was outsold by Nintendo’s
Wii, and sales of Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle trumped those of
Sony’s rival electronic-book reader.

Under Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, who co-founded Sony in
1946, the company created Japan’s first transistor radio and the
world’s first compact disc player. Morita’s admirers included
Apple founder Steve Jobs, according to John Sculley, former CEO
of Apple.